Kandahar; 10 % of families have clean drinkable water

However, UNICEF in the 9^th district of the city and a charity foundation in the 12^th district have been able to provide clean drinkable water for the people.

The solution is short-term and often due to lack of budget, the people of this region do not get access to clean water for months.

Izatullah Yousefi, head of charity foundation, says that most of the Afghans who live in foreign countries send money to them and provide clean water to people.

“Afghans abroad are helping us and we try providing clean water to people daily, but sometimes we are facing budget shortages.”

The 9^th, 12^th, 13^th and 15^th districts of Kandahar are parts of the city where the water level has gone down and people are facing lack of clean water.

Murtaza, a resident of the 9^th district, says that lack of water has caused severe problems and requests the government to take action solving the problem.

“People in our surrounding areas are facing a serious shortage of water or they bring water from far away.”

Mostly, the people whose economic situation is a little better bring tankers to their homes solving problem of clean water, but they also complain that the price of water tanker has gone up as the water level has gone down.

Haji Abdul Salam says that one tanker of water is for a week and the price of each tanker is 1400 AFs.

“There are 42 members in house, we have many problems regarding water. I buy a tanker every week, the price of one tanker is 1400 AFs. So, I cannot afford the second tanker.”

Obaidullah, a resident of families’ area of ​​ 12^th district of Kandahar, also says that their whole area is dry and often the people of the area do not have access to clean water and bring water from far away.

“Almost 90 % people have faced water shortage, most of the boreholes and wells are dried. Also, they do not have money buying fuel to draw water out of wells or buy a tanker of water with money.

According to the numbers of Kandahar water supply agency, only 9 thousand out of 80 thousand families in this city have benefited from clean water and it is planned that 7 thousand more families will be also benefited.

Director of Kandahar Water Supply, Haji Mullah Bacha Yousuf, says that lack of possibilities and expansion of the city have made their services difficult.

“Almost now, we supply water to 9,000 houses. In some places, the work is still underway. We drilled large boreholes in different parts of the city, water pipes will reach other houses as well soon.”

In some parts of Kandahar city, water level reaches up to 180 m down, the last one year, this level has also dropped by 19 m.

In the latest development, Supreme Leader of Islamic Emirate has ordered that 50 deep wells should be dug in the remote districts of Kandahar; so, the problem of drinkable water in this province can be solved permanently.

Translated by Muhammad Yousuf “Zakir”